Polymer Science Faculty Research
Title
Conformations and torsional potentials of poly (3-hexylthiophene) oligomers: Density functional calculations up to the dodecamer
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2012
Abstract
Fully optimized conformations of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) oligomers up to the decamer and torsional potentials up to the dodecamer (302 atoms) are investigated by large-scale density functional calculations (B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p)). Fully relaxed P3HT oligomers were investigated at a variety of conformational minima, many with skeletal structures far from planarity. The lowest energy conformations found have each hexyl group ≈74° out of plane and each backbone twist angle out of plane by ≈47°. The energies of these non-planar conformations are lower than that of the planar reference geometry by ≈30 meV per monomer. Backbone torsional potentials and hexyl torsional potentials converge with oligomer length by the octamer. A wide variety of oligomer conformations are sufficiently close in energy (∼kT) that the actual conformations found in a condensed phase will be determined primarily by intermolecular interactions, and substantial conformational disorder might be expected in the heterogenous environment of practical solar devices.
Recommended Citation
Tsige, Mesfin, "Conformations and torsional potentials of poly (3-hexylthiophene) oligomers: Density functional calculations up to the dodecamer" (2012). Polymer Science Faculty Research. 371.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/polymerscience_ideas/371